You are here

Speeches

Pages

Many different actors are currently working on strategies, recommendations and guidelines on Artificial Intelligence but as we proceed to navigate this field I would emphasise the extraordinary importance of working together. Within the normative frame of human rights, we have to bring together different stakeholders and different expertise to get it right. Artificial intelligence can serve as a game-changing tool in the combat of corrosive hate speech. Let’s not miss, or worse abuse, this invaluable opportunity. ** CHECK AGAINST DELIVERY **

Speech by the FRA Director Michael O'Flaherty to the European Parliament's LIBE Committee, 20 November 2018, as part of the European Parliament’s Human Rights Week marking the 70th anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.

Michael O’Flaherty, FRA Director, opening remarks ahead of the presentation of the findings of the agency's second antisemitism survey at a joint European Commission and Austrian EU Presidency event in Brussels on 10 December 2018.
*** CHECK AGAINST DELIVERY ***

Michael O’Flaherty, FRA Director, speaks to European Affairs Ministers about trust in public institutions during the General Affairs Council's annual rule of law dialogue in Brussels on 12 November 2018.

Today we celebrate the 10th anniversary of the Agreement between the EU and Council of Europe on cooperation of the Council of Europe and our Agency. 10 years on from the Agreement, our collaboration has become a fixture in Europe’s human rights landscape. I am grateful to the Council of Europe for its support, and look forward to continuing our work together to ensure that the rights of everyone in the EU and in Europe are defended and respected. ** CHECK AGAINST DELIVERY **

In our politics, there has been a normalisation of the unacceptable in terms of word and deed. That includes racist and xenophobic words and deeds, which are now as pervasive as they are corrosive to democratic life in the European Union and around the world. Our Agency’s data show worsening conditions across all major areas of our work. ** CHECK AGAINST DELIVERY **

The FRA Director delivered a speech to justice ministers from across the EU during the Justice and Home Affairs Council on 11 October in Luxembourg. His speech focused on some of the key challenges for the human rights system in the EU and pointed to possible ways of safeguarding fundamental rights for everybody in the EU. ** CHECK AGAINST DELIVERY **

We can be sad and we can be angry. But we also need to persevere. We need to keep reminding our governments to acknowledge the impact of anti-Gypsyism that undermines their own considerable investment in Roma inclusion. Ioannis Dimitrakopoulos provides welcome remarks at the 12th Platform meeting on 9 October 2018.

Michael O’Flaherty, Chair of the Forum and FRA Director sums up his impressions of FRA's Fundamental Rights Forum 2018 and presents the Chair’s Statement 2018 on 27 September 2018 in Vienna. *** CHECK AGAINST DELIVERY ***

Michael O’Flaherty, Chair of the Forum and FRA Director gives the opening remarks on the first day of the Agency's Fundamental Rights Forum 2018 in Vienna, 25 September 2018. *** CHECK AGAINST DELIVERY ***